Family Court

ARTICLES ABOUT FAMILY COURT BY DATE - PAGE 5

Your editorial Sept. 23, "Change the rules on child-abusers," publicly discloses the Legislature's need to "get serious about child protection."Not only is there a need for "social workers to stop reuniting `families' that never were," but for Family Court judges to stop this disastrous procedure. I have been a Family Court observer for five years and have been consistently appalled by the callous attitude of judges who insist on "reuniting `families' that never were."The Legislature makes the laws but judges interpret them.

Three days before sixth-grader Edward Werner, 11, of Jackson Township was strangled while selling school candy near his home, a state judge refused to order long-term psychiatric treatment for the teen-ager who is now charged with the slaying, court documents show. The parents of the 15-year-old went to New Jersey Family Court in Toms River on Sept. 24 with a family-crisis counselor and appealed to Judge James Citta to commit their son to a psychiatric hospital, arguing that they could no longer control him, the records show.

The inevitable wisps of gray have begun to march across Jorge Labarga's temples, perhaps the most visible sign of the stress that has barged into his life since he took the bench 18 months ago. The demands of his job were never so clear as they were two weeks ago, when a Royal Palm Beach man dumped gasoline over his body and set himself on fire. Jeffrey Schooley, 41, had told his family and friends that he would rather die than pay child support to the mother of his 8-year-old son. He carried out his wish just hours after his divorce was finalized.

Two burly men emerge from the judge's chambers, towering over the small woman in the big hat. They smile, speak softly as they pull business cards from the pockets of expensive suits. This is not the case to sit in on, they say, their voices assuming a confidential tone. Very sensitive, they say. A child testifying. Delicate situation. "Legally, I have a right to be in there," argues Eleanor Mendlein, 87, unimpressed with the attorneys blocking her path to what serves as the family courtroom.

A class-action suit filed against Gov. Lawton Chiles and the state's Department of Children & Families could decide the kind of care received by 2,135 mentally and physically disabled Floridians now being supported at taxpayer expense in private institutions. Davie firefighter Russ Cramer filed the suit last year after the Legislature voted to slash funds for the 91 private, not-for-profit centers for disabled Floridians and to move the residents into smaller group homes. Florida spends about $166 million a year for the institutionalized care of the state's severely disabled citizens - a figure the state hopes to cut by about 35 percent.

The Danish mother who left her 14-month-old daughter unattended for about an hour outside a Manhattan restaurant on Saturday night will not be allowed to be alone with the child until charges against her are cleared up, according to a ruling by a family court judge. The case of the child on the sidewalk has triggered outraged headlines in Danish newspapers, such as "Dane in Grotesque Nightmare in New York." On Wednesday evening, after a family court hearing, the mother was reunited with her daughter in a private home in New York City.

Retirements, reassignments, an election and the start of the new year will mean new duties for several Broward Circuit judges starting on Jan. 6. The criminal bench will see the most changes, with two judges moving and one retiring. The division, which has 14 judges, will have three new people. "We're not elected to the criminal bench or elected to the civil bench, so I think rotation is a healthy thing," said Chief Judge Dale Ross, who juggled the judicial appointments once the election became final.

Voters on Tuesday will choose between a prosecutor or a lawyer who specializes in commercial property litigation to be their newest judge on the Palm Beach County Circuit Court bench. Paula Russell, an assistant state attorney in Palm Beach County for 11 years, and Thomas Barkdull, the son of a Third District Court of Appeal judge in Miami, both want the Circuit Group 21 seat. The job is nonpartisan. Russell and Barkdull, who survived a five-candidate September primary, are seeking the seat being vacated by Circuit Judge Thomas Sholts, who is retiring after 24 years on the bench.

There are some family legal situations that you just want to handle yourself - without the expense of an attorney. And the newly opened Palm Beach County Family Court Self-Help Center can assist you. The center, which opened on May 1 at the Palm Beach County Courthouse, is designed to streamline the flow of cases filed by litigants who may not be able to afford, or choose not to hire, an attorney. On its opening day, 70 people turned to the self-help center and the services it provides, Court Administrator Susan Ferrante said.

Re the Brian Bush custody case: As a practicing family law attorney, I would like to help the public understand Judge Lawrence Korda's decision to temporarily award custody to the child's father. It is grossly unfair for anyone to criticize Judge Korda for awarding temporary custody to the only person who had any legal custodial rights to the child, under the laws as they currently exist. As much as we would all like for every decision to be based on what we perceive to be the child's best interests, there are constraints placed on our family court judges by the Legislature.